Probably the fastest commissioned custom cover art and finishing work I’ve ever had. Working off Dorothy Hwee’s art, Jeroen ten Berge did another customary fantastic job. He told me he had been planning to take the day off, but found my request too good to pass up. It’s vendors like these which make a guy’s life easier, I tell you!

I’ll advance the release date due to this rather stunning work, but more on that later.

Just got the finished artwork from artist Dorothy Hwee a short while ago. This is the low-res version, but certainly suitable for show. Additional graphics to be supplied by the inimitable Jeroen ten Berge, though he might not know that yet, as he’s probably still lying on his back with his eyes closed in New Zealand. 🙂 Looks like this one might have an early release, if things continue on this path.

For the complete release of The Last Town: A Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse, a new cover is slowly being incubated. Interested parties should note that while there is some new material included in this release, it is not materially that much different from the serial. That is all.

For kicks, here’s the final for the cover of Earthfall 2. Original artwork by Marc Lee, additional effects work and graphics by Jeroen ten Berge. Looks kinda sweet, to me. I have an editorial slot for on/around July 31, with a release date still pending.

“They look so cute together,” Kelly Jordello said as she looked over the sandwich she held in her hands.

Mike Andrews glanced up from his own lunch, then turned to take in what had caught Kelly’s attention. Sitting several tables away in the Commons Area, he saw his executive officer, Leona Eklund, sitting down and enjoying her own lunch. Across from her was the hulk and bulk of Command Sergeant Major Scott Mulligan. She was a slender, tall girl of mixed parentage, blessed with a dusky skin that hadn’t paled one iota since Harmony Base had been sealed off over a decade ago. He was a virtual giant, standing in at six inches over six feet and with the mass to match, his brown hair going gray at the temples. There was at least a twenty-five year gap in their ages, but their differences were much deeper than merely chronological or physical. Leona possessed an almost regal air about her that simply oozed intellect. Mulligan, on the other hand, was about as stately as a bloody broadsword. It was a circumstance of night and day personified. Both simply sat across from each other, eating their lunches, on break from mission planning. They didn’t look at each other, and didn’t talk. To Andrews, it was almost as if two strangers were sharing the same table.

“What’s so cute about them?” he asked, turning back to Kelly.

She frowned at him and brushed a stray strand of blonde hair out of her eyes. “Dude, you’re such a guy. Take another look.”

Andrews sighed and examined the mismatched duo once more. They merely ate and sat, concentrating on what was on the trays before them. He started to shrug and get back to his own meal when he saw it: Leona had her foot snuggled up against one of Mulligan’s boots. There was no way the big sergeant major couldn’t have known it, and he hadn’t pulled away from the contact.

“I hope they have kids. Could you imagine? Mulligan’s brawn and Leona’s brains? It’d be, like, the beginning of a new super race.”

“Yeah, well. I’m not sure we could handle that,” Andrews said, returning to his lunch.

“I think it’s great they found each other,” Kelly said. “They fit, in a really odd way. But it works. Never though the Old Guard and New Guard would click like that.”

“Kelly? Stop staring. The last thing you want to do is rile up Mulligan.”

She waved the notion aside. “Pshaw, how could he still be one hundred percent badass when he’s with Leona?”

“You make it sound like he’s spending his off-hours knitting doilies. He’s been kicking our asses for the past four months with tactical training, and you think he’s not still a hundred percent badass? Weren’t you the one who started puking all over the place after he made you run five miles?”

Kelly frowned. “Okay. Ninety-five percent badass, maybe.” She took another bite of her sandwich. “So hey, I hear you guys are leaving the base tomorrow—I see Four’s on the deployment chart. I thought you finished all the shakedowns.”

“Yeah, we did.”

“Okay. So?”

Andrews fidgeted a bit in his chair. “It’s just a little run. Something the command group wants to keep under the radar.”

Kelly chuckled. “Yeah, like that’s even possible. The HBT is probably already fired up over it. What’s the mission?” HBT was the informal acronym for Harmony Base Telegraph, which was the local rumor mill. In an isolated, subterranean fortress like Harmony, rumors and gossip were one of the lubricants that kept things running. People needed a distraction from the monotonous existence the base provided, and the HBT was one of the best ways to add a little sparkle into an otherwise repetitious way of life.

“I’m not really supposed to talk about it,” Andrews said, even though he knew that would hardly put her off. If anything, it would be like tossing a tasty steak in front of a starving Rottweiler and telling the dog not to eat it.

Kelly’s eyes widened. “You’re going on a classified mission? There’s something more important than the Northwest run?”

“It’s not classified. It’s just… sensitive.”

Kelly put down her sandwich and faced him, putting an elbow on the table. “Mike, what’s going on? Who’s on the mission, your entire crew?”

“Me. Lee. Mulligan. And KC, because she needs more field time.”

“What about the others? Josh, Marco, Marguerite, Nancy? They haven’t gotten a lot of rig time since—wait a minute, did you say Mulligan?”

“Yeah, that might’ve slipped out.”

“Is this related to the Northwest mission?”

“It is not.”

“Then why is he going?”

Andrews clasped his hands in front of him and just looked at her. For several seconds, she just stared back at him, before the perplexed expression on her face broke. She raised a hand to her mouth.

“Oh my God… they’re letting him do it?”

Andrews’s only response was a subtle shrug.

Kelly turned and looked back at Leona and Mulligan, still sitting at their table, finishing up their lunch. She looked suddenly sad.

“It’ll kill him,” she said.

“Let’s not be too dramatic here, Kell.”

“But he has everything now,” she said. “If he does it, he won’t come back the same. He’ll lose everything. It’ll be like before San Jose, only worse this time. He’ll wind up eating his gun.”

“I don’t disagree, but we both know Mulligan. He has to do it,” Andrews said. “No man could just leave them out there. He has to do it.”

“I can’t believe Benchley approved it,” Kelly said softly.

“Well, there’s the catch. And that’s what makes the mission sensitive.”

Kelly looked at him. “What?” When he didn’t respond, she reached out and punched his shoulder, and not in a playful manner. “Damn it, Mike, don’t lead me on like this!”

“Benchley’s going, too.”

“What? The Old Man’s leaving the base?”

Andrews held up a hand. “Hey. Keep your voice down.”

Kelly looked around, then leaned toward him. “Why is Benchley going out into the field? Isn’t it enough for the senior NCO to be doing that?”

“I asked the same question. Benchley’s words were, ‘It’s an Old Guard thing, Andrews. That’s all you need to know.’ In other words, shut the fuck up, boy, and drive me to where I want to go. I hear Baxter was the last holdout, but if she couldn’t change the Old Man’s mind, then no one could.”

Kelly looked back at Mulligan and Leona again. “We just think of them as a general and a sergeant major, but they’re friends. That’s why he’s not going to let Mulligan go by himself. I get it.”

“Yeah, well, you need to keep this to yourself, at least until after we hit the vehicle lift,” Andrews said. “Don’t even mention it to Jim.” Jim Laird was Kelly’s immediate superior, though he didn’t have much of a command at the moment. But since Self Contained Exploration Vehicle Five was destroyed almost a year ago, he and the rest of that rig’s crew had been filling in on other missions. In fact, Laird and Jordello had both made the return journey to San Jose, to begin sustainment operations of the small group of survivors that remained there. Unsurprisingly, the survivors had welcomed the assistance Harmony Base could provide. All it took for that to happen was for Andrews to kill their violent, paranoid leader Law. It hadn’t been easy thing to accomplish. Law managed to kill two of his top crewmembers and demolished SCEV Four, though enough of the rig had remained to repair and rebuild. It had taken months, and Andrews had to oversee the entire operation.

“I won’t tell anyone, dude. Seriously,” Kelly said. She gazed back at Mulligan and Leona. “I hope she doesn’t get hurt. He might not be the only casualty.”

Andrews regarded the remains of his lunch, and found he was no longer hungry. He pushed the tray away from him. “I know,” he said.

As always, all the above is unedited and not guaranteed to make it to print.

So as is the standard for serials, I collected the six novellas of The Last Town and put together one enormously fat book, currently standing in at about 722 pages. I grew to like this story more and more as I wrote it, and in the end, I’m more-or-less happy with it. I have taken the opportunity to further expand the storyline however, adding a good six thousand plus words here and there, as well as altering the storyline just a touch by tossing in some more character development. Reese and Bates have more history, and the relationship between Norton and Danielle gets a wax and wash. I’ve also made Booker a little less of a useless tool, and eased Sinclair further along the road toward becoming more of a human being as opposed to just a noisome foil for Corbett. And I’m still looking to add a bit more luster to Victor and Suzy, as these two characters became my favorites. I’m not sure why it is, but I became especially fond of Victor. That seems to happen from time to time; in The Gathering Dead, I thought McDaniels would be my go-to guy, but it became Gartrell, instead.

I’ve also paved over some of the inconsistencies in the story, and added more detail to the suddenly-appearing contingency plans that popped up in #5 and #6. If I have the time, I’ll add in more combat after my editor, the ever-tenacious Lynn McNamee at Red Adept has her first slash at this mountain of text, so there’s some chance the release might top out closer to 800 pages by the time it’s ready for birthin’ at the end of August.

And yes, a new cover is on its way. The one here (with stenches a-burnin’) is just the placeholder work that I use for the series. It’ll have a different look than the others. I expect the print version to follow shortly thereafter, and I’m already looking down the road to getting an audio book presentation pulled together. That will be an extremely expensive proposition, as I’ll do what I did with Charges and pay it out up front.

All that having been said, other work continues: post-production on the audio version of These Dead Lands: Immolation, working on the sequel, These Dead Lands: Desolation, the still as-yet untitled The Retreat 5, as well as the prequel to The Gathering Dead, called Whispers of the Dead and Earthfall 2, the follow-up to Earthfall.

Some surprise snap releases also approach: Tribes and Plague City. Tribes is a standalone science fiction thriller set in the Antarctic, and Plague City is the first book of a trilogy about a super-plague that leaves the world a much less crowded place. Tribes is a book I’ve been messing around with since 2010, and it’s a more along the lines of City of the Damned than, say, any of the zombie stuff to date. Plague City has no supernatural features, and is essentially a post-apoc book, but full of chargin’ action.

Anyhow, more to come as things progress. I hope everyone is ready for a great summer!

For those who might be interested, Dead in L.A. has shambled out of the shadows on Amazon. You can find it here:

This one’s a standalone in The Gathering Dead universe, though there is some light interplay with The Last Town. The next release in this cycle will be Whispers of the Dead, a prequel that will chronicle the emergence of the zompoc, and feature McDaniels and Gartrell as they spool up and jump out to extract Wolf Safire from New York City. I’m forecasting that one will be released in December 2017, provided I can get the editorial slot locked up. 🙂